Abstract: Disclosed herein are various embodiments of a medical instrument used for conducting eye, ear, mouth examinations of a patient. The instrument is connectable with a remote power supply. In an exemplified embodiment, instrument comprises an elongated, rigid body defining a first end and a second end, a light emitting member disposed at the first end, and an input/output connector disposed at the second end and adapted for selective connection with the remote power supply, so as to enable operation of the light emitting member free of connection with the remote power supply. The instrument may also be used for sensitivity testing of skin areas of the patent.

Abstract: The hand held scale of the present invention comprises a rectangular casing with a weighing platform, for supporting items to be weighed, a display screen, for displaying the weight of the objects and to view the animation sequences. There are a series of digital animations that are viewable on the display screen and each different animation sequence corresponds to a particular scale function or operation. The user is amused and entertained with animation when the scale is turned on, objects are weighed, the scale is turned off, reset as well as other functions.

Abstract: Novel chimeric constructions and methods for their use are provided for expression of exogenous genes in a plant chloroplast. Particularly, expression is achieved by the use of a chloroplast or bacterial 5? untranslated region in the expression cassette. The expression cassette may be integrated into the chloroplast genome by the use of chloroplast DNA flanking sequences, or may replicate autonomously if provided with a chloroplast origin of replication. Plants and cells containing the transformed chloroplasts are also provided. The constructs may be used with both monocotyledenous and dicotyledenous chloroplasts.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are novel methods and materials for selecting transgenic cells. Specifically exemplified herein are positive selection methods that involve conferring to cells the ability to metabolize certain compounds, preferably arabitol, ribitol, raffinose, sucrose, mannitol or combinations thereof. Accordingly, transformed cells can be selected by simply subjecting them to a medium containing such compounds. The subject invention alleviates the disadvantages and concerns of negative selection methods, such as the unnecessary killing of transformed cells and the dispersal of potentially harmful genes (e.g., antibiotic or herbicide resistant genes) into the environment. Furthermore, novel nucleotide sequences relating to the E. coli rtl operon and arabitol dehydrogenase gene, and amino acid sequences relating to the gene products thereof are disclosed.